Four routes from Mountain Top (summit of the grade) in Solomon Gap, PA, August, 1970.
Five Lehigh Valley SW8 "pups" roll an unexpected westbound downgrade with an oversize load. They are utilizing the weed-grown LV Mountain Cut Off, rather than the Jersey Central Back Track. Presumably, the oversize load was too large for the CNJ White Haven Tunnel. The Back Track was the preferred route for most LV and CNJ traffic between White Haven and Laurel Run at that time.
The four routes, left to right:
- LV Mountain Cut Off to Laurel Run and Coxton.
- CNJ Back Track to Laurel Run and Ashley.
- CNJ Ashley Plane (abandoned, near the highway) to Ashley.
- On the distant mountainside, the abandoned (and remarkably inaccessible) LV passenger main to Wilkes-Barre.
